Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a web browser and connectable to a network, a control method of controlling operation of the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
A web browser that accesses a web server on a network and receives and displays various contents provided by the web server is installed in not only personal computers but also image forming apparatuses such as printers and copiers (see Japanese Patent Publication No. 4440173).
There has been a technique of using such a web browser installed in image forming apparatuses not only for the purpose of viewing information on the Internet but also as a user interface (hereafter referred to as “a web operation unit”) of a main body of an image forming apparatus or peripheral equipment such as a print control apparatus (hereafter referred to as “a print controller”) connected to the image forming apparatus. Specifically, the web operation unit is a web page, and for example, its URL is registered in advance as a start page or a favorite (hereafter referred to as “a favorite or the like”) in a web browser of the image forming apparatus and called from a touch panel of the image forming apparatus so as to be used. It should be noted that “favorites” are also called bookmarks or a hotlist.
However, when a web operation unit of peripheral equipment is to be registered as a favorite or the like in a web browser installed in an image forming apparatus, a problem explained hereafter arises. Specifically, peripheral equipment connectable to an image forming apparatus is not always connected to the image forming apparatus, and hence a web operation unit of the peripheral equipment cannot be registered as a favorite or the like in advance in a web browser installed in the image forming apparatus. Moreover, when peripheral equipment is connected to an image forming apparatus, it is necessary to do software keyboard input from a touch panel of the image forming apparatus so as to register a web operation unit of the peripheral equipment as a favorite or the like in a web browser installed in the image forming apparatus. In this case, an input operation is complicated and lacks workability because it involves input of a URL including symbols such as colons.